Seeing, but not thinking: Limiting the spread of spontaneous trait transference II

When an informant describes trait-implicative behavior of a target, the informant is often associated with the trait implied by the behavior and can be assigned heightened ratings on that trait (STT effects). Presentation of a target photo along with the description seemingly eliminates these effects. Using three different measures of visual attention, the results of two studies show the elimination of STT effects by target photo presentation cannot be attributed to associative mechanisms linked to enhanced visual attention to targets. Instead, presentation of a target’s photo likely prompts perceivers to spontaneously make target inferences in much the same way they make spontaneous inferences about self-describers. As argued by Todorov and Uleman [Todorov, A., & Uleman, J. S. (2004). The person reference process in spontaneous trait inferences. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 87, 482–493], such attributional processing can preclude the formation of trait associations to informants.